Michael Jackson really hated Prince

It’s no secret Prince viewed Michael Jackson as a major rival, and there are numerous tales of him going out of his way to irk the King of Pop. A heated game of ping-pong ended with Jackson walking out of the room and Prince gloating, “Did you see that? He played like Helen Keller.” When Jackson sought to collaborate with Prince on a song called “I’m Bad”, Prince not only rejected the offer, he mockingly re-recorded the song and sent it back to MJ. When Jackson attended a Prince concert in 2006, Prince came out into the audience, walked right up to Jackson, and aggressively playing bass in his face. And the stories go on and on and on.

While the two musicians never publicly acknowledged their feud, newly surfaced audio from 1988 hears Jackson discuss his disdain for Prince. The audio, obtained by Daily Mirror, was recorded as Jackson wrote his biography Moonwalker.

“I don’t like to be compared to Prince at all,” Jackson is quoted as saying. “I have proven myself since I was real little. It’s not fair. He feels like I’m his opponent. I hope he changes because boy, he’s gonna get hurt. He’s the type that might commit suicide or something.”

“He was so rude, one of rudest people I have ever met,” Jackson reportedly added. “Prince is very competitive. He has been very mean and nasty to my family.”

Jackson also mocked a 1983 on-stage collaboration in which he and Prince backed James Brown. During the performance (which you can watch above), Prince mistook a fake stage lamp post for a real one and fell into the crowd. “He made a fool of himself. He was a joke,” Jackson said. “People were running and screaming. I was so embarrassed. It was all on video.”